By now, we would have already known that there is no free good lunch. Didn’t we already know?
Our late father Lee Kuan Yew reiterated that nothing is for free. Not always free. Gotta bust our kicks doing what it takes to survive on our own in this cosmopolitan jungle. Mantra of meritocracy and self-sufficiency so mighty to our economy runs deep and engineered into our mundane lives. We study hard (sorry I hadn’t) the day we were in school and our parents send us for enhanced tuition classes believing we could stay on top of the rat race. At the end of our education or lack of thereof, we were supposed to land good jobs. Or attempt to find at least a decent one. Really I thought I could.
As long as we are eating, breathing and kicking, we need to work and somehow take that call from the office. Folks less entrepreneurial, find the company who will take you in. Not so fortunate going on the extended rollercoaster ride in securing a job? Why, why. People blame them for their incompetence and lack of social circles. Alas, they sought better and consulted a career coach considering those career guidance advertisements. In Singapore, the institutions NTUC e2i and WSG Careers Connect will hear you out. Everyone knows the philosophy behind, ‘some advice could help and shed light on candidates’ shortcomings”. Jobseekers could leverage on professional coaching expertise to improve their potential. Taking advantage of the career resources and job opportunities available by the career centers are ways to elevate the chances of job hunting. Fingers crossed.
<- …oh, Ned Stark. Need you not remind me
Don’t do it as though your life depended on it.
If career advice is what you are looking for, dig deeper to know yourself before you enter that coaching door. Popped by NTUC e2i at the Devan Nair Institute of Employable and Employability on a weekday afternoon. Wanted some opinions on landing a suitable job because like many others, I wanted to be wiser at job hunting. The appointment visit was kind of all right and not bad, but to some others, possibly not a necessity. Basically, they set you up with a career coach at the reception if you did not have a reserved online appointment. Grumpy receptionist did not bother much to entertain but when you made your point of your visit so critical she will plot your particulars into the wait register.
Cordial male career counsellor in his 40s, assessed my resume and gave me some tips on how to go for interviews. Before that, he spoke on the strategy to be shortlisted for interviews by suggesting a thorough resume edit with the aid of several textbook resume templates. Wow. Every resume, although a change in formatting and tone, all look the same to me. They were supposed to be different. He recommended to provide accurate and short descriptions on my profile under one page. Neat and concise. This is great. I admit, at times, drafting out a decent work about myself in a single-paged document is tough craft. He branched into detailed talks. Reviewed my career ambition. Enlightening advice on reconsidering that myth of finding the “dream job”. According to this guru, there ain’t such thing as a dream job. No dreams.
Was given market advice on the kind of jobs I was interested in and would be a good fit. Much talk about concepts, diagrams, the MBTI personality test I should be aware to know thyself and job fit. Then again, I’ve seen some of these somewhere on the great ol’ Internet. Could tell the coach refrained from using social comparisons of myself to individuals in similar circumstances. Not sure why. If you would read his in-betweens, you feel the pauses in his words to think and rethink over his explanations. Maybe my profile was average to begin with. And he didn’t know what to do with it.
So I inquired about the acclaimed Professional Conversion Programme (PCP).
This was the bulk of my purpose in seeing a career coach. Curious mousey had to know if it is possible to jump ship into another field vastly different from your previous occupation. Reply I got was a generic positive. He said to apply for the program, and did not mention in-depth specifics about the transferrable skills candidates could leverage on to apply for a change in industries. There wasn’t much word on the fact that if you did not have mirroring diplomas or degrees in terms of the sectors and industries you were applying for, you would most probably be rejected (I rang up some numbers to confirm about this). I was still lost in the answers at this point.
At the culmination of the coaching, I specifically asked if it is possible to land a job quickly through openings offered by WSG. The career coach mentioned that the applicant has to land those opportunities by themselves even if those were available (according to their own merit and effort). Meaning, the job candidate has to make use of those resources, contact the right place, register for them online and in forms, send those resume documents, wait to see if shortlisted for interview (or not). No guarantee.
Is career coaching really that necessary? Most of which were feedback I didn’t quite need.
Take this career coaching as another form of experience out of the well, many other experiences life puts you through. Don’t be blinded by advice the coaching gives you because if you are going to literally swallow everything, it can affect your self-esteem and you negatively spiral into self-doubt. Don’t put your hopes up in career coaching if you are planning to go for one. Remember, every job candidate is different and there is no one failsafe method for anyone in the path to employment. Coaches may be veterans from known industries or ex-directors in MNCs. But you have to know yourself better than they do. Start believing in yourself!